C. Roy Carmichael Elementary

Located at 895 West St., in Portola, California, C. Roy Carmichael Elementary is a compact elementary campus that works with 344 students (grades K through 6), part of Plumas Unified. By comparison, California's public schools average about 465 students each, so C. Roy Carmichael Elementary sits 26% below that benchmark.

Across the 9 schools in Plumas Unified (1,685 students total), C. Roy Carmichael Elementary accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

In terms of who attends, C. Roy Carmichael Elementary lists that the most-represented group is White (55%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. Other groups include 32% Hispanic, 9% multiracial, 3% Native American. By comparison, Plumas County as a whole is about 84% White, so the school skews considerably less White than its surroundings.

Looking at school resources, C. Roy Carmichael Elementary shows 17 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 20.2:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 22.3:1 average. Around 71% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. By comparison, Plumas County runs at roughly 54%, so the school's eligibility rate is higher than the surrounding baseline.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, C. Roy Carmichael Elementary performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 37.4%, the actual is 34.5%, a residual of -2.9 points.

In the area at large, ACS estimates for Plumas County put the typical household earns roughly $66,031 per year, roughly 23% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 6%. Across Plumas County's 15 public schools (combined enrollment of about 2,049 students), C. Roy Carmichael Elementary is one campus in the mix.

Beckwourth (Jim) High (Continuation) is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.3 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 2 other public schools cluster around C. Roy Carmichael Elementary. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts C. Roy Carmichael Elementary at 2nd of 5; the average score across the group is 32.3%.

The school occupies an outlying site.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count held roughly steady: 344 students in 2018 compared to 344 in 2025. White enrollment moved from 65% to 55% across the same window. Class-load math has narrowed: from 31.2:1 in 2018 to 20.2:1 in 2025.

On allk12, posts here usually surface around enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. The community welcomes input from current and former families.